honestly the mattress firmness thing is a complete mess across brands, you're right about that. what feels medium at one place is gonna be way different somewhere else. for side sleeping in LA without AC those first few months, I'd skip most memory foam honestly, it sleeps hot as hell especially in summer here. look at hybrid mattresses instead, they've got coil systems that actually let air move through so you're not waking up drenched at 3am when it's still 75 degrees in your apartment.
if you want specific names, tuft & needle hybrid or Brooklyn bedding signature hybrid both run cooler and work well for side sleepers without breaking your back on price. both are actually medium-soft where it counts (not firm pretending to be medium like some brands do). costco also has decent options if you've got a membership, their return policy is stupid easy if you hate it after a few weeks. whatever you do, make sure there's a solid return window because you won't really know if it works for you until you've slept on it for at least a week or two.
Hi Derek, appreciate you doing this. my wife is a side sleeper, 125 pounds. we have a nice talalay latex topper of 2 inches that we got a few years ago to soften the previous mattress (which was a Sealy latex one from years ago) so now she tried using the tuft and needle from costco with it, but it was too cushy. was thinking if something durable and not too soft, (as the 2 inch topper rated soft ILD - will soften it somewhat) price is also a factor. any ideas ? we’d like to take advantage of the topper we already have , thanks
Costco frequently has major sales on mattresses for around $500 for a decent quality mattress. You don't get to try them out (although they do sometimes have display models at the store) but their return policy is so lenient that you could return it if you don't like it. I've seen good reviews for the Kirkland brand hybrids and I have a Tuft & Needle I got from them that I like. Casper is pretty popular but the Costco model is different from the regular Casper.
We’ve had a king size Leesa (Classic, I think) for seven years and it’s maybe the best mattress I’ve ever had. I think we paid $1200. We also have a king Tuft and Needle from Amazon for about $600. It’s been good, albeit on the firm side so we put a 2” gel pad and it’s really nice. We have had mattresses from Puffy (not bad) and IKEA (way too firm). All of these are bed-in-a-box type mattresses.
matthew_hoult
